I have no research data to prove this, but I’m pretty confident that my hunch is true: most people are walking past treasures.

The treasures are words, the kind found in books, such as the classics and masterfully crafted works of literature. Italo Calvino wrote in The Uses of Literature, “A classic is a book that has never finished saying what it has to say.”  Too many people nowadays don’t give the works a chance to start speaking.

What are people reading today? Are the words thrown together to catch attention in social media or are they crafted to tell a story, provoke ideas, share wisdom, engage minds, touch hearts, prompt laughs, reveal characters, celebrate victory, survive battles, discover new worlds…? Those words are in books. Books are treasures, found in libraries and bookstores.  Books are to be held, felt, smelled, hefted, not unlike a pirate running his hand through the coins and jewels in a treasure chest; the words within become more alive when coming off a page than from out of speakers.

The evidence seems overwhelming that people don’t use time to read for entertainment, engagement, and enlightenment, and that is a poverty that is easily remedied. Proof is found in conversations and correspondence (what little there is left of it). Spend time in a treasure vault – library or bookstore, especially those that sell used books – and start a collection of your own. You’ll be richer for it.